The Michigan Education Association is growing more pathetic by the day.  The union is beginning to act like the crazy drunk uncle at the Christmas party – spilling his drink on himself and acting rudely to the point where others are embarrassed for him.

Seemingly unable to stop any legislation that it opposes after being neutered in the last election, the union is on the floor, kicking and screaming.  It’s a pretty pathetic scene to watch.

After getting rolled by legislation that would create Emergency Financial Managers in the worst municipalities and school districts, the MEA is now complaining that the legislature is taking a two week break.  The masochists write to their members:

“After barely 30 days in session and no meaningful action to create jobs, legislators think they’ve ‘earned’  two weeks of paid vacation,” said Glenn Freeman, president of the Greater Lansing Labor Council. “Instead of spending time working on their tans, we need our leaders to get back to work and come together to create quality jobs for Michigan workers.”

That’s an interesting assessment.  Detroit Public Schools has a drop-out rate well above 50% and it’s test scores are absolutely dismal, but employees see no problem taking three months off during the summer – but I digress…

The MEA has thus far demonstrated zero ability to stop any legislation it doesn’t like.  Wouldn’t the union want the legislature to stay out as long as possible?  Or do they truly enjoy pain and griping?

It should be noted that the union is criticizing the legislature at a time when many of its own members are on spring break.  While I’m not defender of the work ethic of the Michigan legislature, for unionized teachers who are contracted to work somewhere around 180 days a year, the criticism is a bit hollow. Is this the best spit ball the union can lob?  I’d hate to see the follow up.  It would probably  involve the word “meanies” and other medaphorical open-handed punches.

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Americans are beginning to understand that the government-run assembly-line education system is not working.  As I point out in the upcoming “Kids Aren’t Cars” film series, thousands, of not millions of kids are being failed by a system that is geared more towards satisfying adults than educating children.

How else can a recent Detroit Public Schools graduate be unable to read her own diploma? How else can tenure – the job security law for unfit teachers – be explained?  How else can budget busting pension systems be explained?

When collective bargaining was brought into American schools in the 1960s, it was a revenue stream and power base for Big Labor.  Suddenly, union bosses became more interested in building political muscle than educating children.

At that point the battle between unions and school boards became more focusing on salary, benefits,  pensions and working conditions for adults, and less about students.

Kids are only pawns in the self-serving union game.

As we point out in “Kids Aren’t Cars,” this has poisoned the education environment.  We witness ugly fights in communities during union contract negotiations.  Unions lead recall campaigns against school board members who don’t vote the union way. Teachers throw up their hands because the union will take their money by hook or by crook, while showing no interest in their input.

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How bad are things in Detroit?  Not a single person stepped forward to run for the Detroit school board.  Facing extinction, citizens thought better than jumping aboard a sinking ship.

And it’s with good reason.  A story just released by EAGtv shows that parents have lost confidence in the adult-focused system and its elected leaders.

Detroit Public Schools are among the worst in the country.  Dismal student performance, unions run amok and radical activists, like By Any Means Necessary, using the public schools as a platform for their socialist agenda.  Glenn Beck featured this socialist on his Fox News show, when the moron pontificated about the virtues of the Soviet Union during the “National Day of Action to Defend Public Education” March 4th.

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Earlier this year Robert Chanin, the recently retired general counsel for the National Education Association, discussed the effectiveness of teachers unions at a gathering in San Diego:

Despite what some of us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child.

NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.

You can see that portion of his 20 minute speech here:

Chanin’s honesty was, in a way, refreshing. For too long the NEA, as well as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have been hiding their intentions behind the guise of student advocacy, using children as human shields to block criticism.

But the truth is that the NEA and AFT are huge national labor unions with political agendas and have a great deal of influence with state and national lawmakers.  NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com are designed to bring attention to those facts.

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